STV: SageMC 16x9 Version 6.x (latest dev build)

[jaminben]

Originally Posted by flachbar

Has been done, will be in the next version.

Dirk

Sweet, any idea when the next release will be?

[dflachbart]

Originally Posted by jaminben

Sweet, any idea when the next release will be?

Shouldn't be too far away...


Dirk

[jwmcclung]

Originally Posted by flachbar

Hi Justin,

it could be this issue. Please try the lastest SageMC version and let me know if the problem goes away.


Dirk

Dirk, thank you very much that worked perfectly.

[BFisher]

Sorry for asking (go easy on me... I'm a noobie here), but can someone point me to more information about SageMC? The wiki page doesn't load... and I don't want to just load this without having any idea what it does. I've ready through many pages... but 225 is a bit too many... especially without pictures.

Also, can you tell me - will this let me easily sort recordings into Mine, Wifes, Both, and Kids? If not, is there something else you can recommend?

Thanks

[flashbacck]

Is it possible to have the Detailed Settings page updated in the next SageMC update?

[dflachbart]

Originally Posted by flashbacck

Is it possible to have the Detailed Settings page updated in the next SageMC update?

Yes


Dirk

[Conejo]

Originally Posted by BFisher

[...] can someone point me to more information about SageMC? The wiki page doesn't load... and I don't want to just load this without having any idea what it does. I've ready through many pages... but 225 is a bit too many... especially without pictures. [...]
Thanks

Try reading this: SageMC 6x9 Notification Thread

Or, better yet, take a look here at Flachbar's download page, it has LOTS of pretty pictures.

Oh, and what it does... it's hard to describe. It's like, like watching the angels of heaven sing.

[dflachbart]

SageMC 6.3.4 is now available

This is a major new release with a lot of new features and internal changes. The version number really should have been 6.4 (or even 7.0), but I decided to stick with 6.3.x to be able to eventually get in sync with the main SageTV version numbers.

One word of caution first: since there are so many internal changes, I expect almost every other import or theme to break with this new version. So if you are really dependent on your favorite import, I would recommend to hold off until the plugins have been updated. As far as I know a lot of the devs are already working on that.

So, now to the new stuff. The major features are:



New theme framework

The existing theme functionality has been completely re-written, it uses now the same scheme as the default STV: all themes are located in a "Themes" directory, with a default Theme directory "Default" (the MCE one). The images will be loaded directly from those theme directories, and the new theme is ready to use right away, without STV restart. As in the default STV, each theme can contain a theme.properties file in which you can specify additional properties (for now I only implemented the scaling insets for the selection bar graphics, and a theme specific OptionsMenu color). The theme logic first searches the current theme and then the default theme directory for an image file, so in order to create a custom theme you only need to have those graphics in place which are different.

The "Default" theme contains all the images that are currently referenced in the STV, so if you want to create a custom theme then you can use this file list as a reference. A few image files have been renamed/moved, there is a "changes.txt" in the default folder if you need details.

The dev download package includes the new "Theme" folder with the updated "Default" theme, and the full package contains all standard SageMC themes, updated to the new file structure. All the old "Images" folders are not used any more and can be deleted.



Support for new Core Animations

You can enable the new core animations in the SageMC animation settings page. Try it out, it's pretty cool, even if you are not a fan of animations. Menu selection and table animations have been implemented for all menus except the EPG, which might get added later.



Detailed Setup

The SageMC-specific Detailed Setup menu has been removed, the "Detailed Setup" button now automatically loads a slightly modified version of the default STV (SageTV3-sagemc.stv) and switches automatically to the setup menu screen. Once you are finished with the settings, you find a button "Back to SageMC" which will take you back to the previously loaded SageMC STV.



Email

Many thanks to koelec who allowed me to use his 'email checker' code and integrate this into SageMC. I added functionality for downloading the whole message text in addition to the mail header, and you can also define multiple "account holders" to group accounts. See the "mailaccounts.xml" configuration file for details.



Webtext RSS reader

I integrated Niel's webtext plugin which allows you to read RSS items from within SageMC. Note that you have to set up the required cygwin installation if you want to use this, see Niel's plugin documentation on the wiki for more information.



New customizeable MiniGuide

I added a new version of the MiniGuide which has a fixed height (instead of changing it's height depending on the amount of displayed show info). The new guide can be customized in many ways, just bring up the 'Options' menu while the Mini Guide is displayed. If you prefer the old version, there's a button in the options menu to switch back.



Reorganized SageMC Settings

I reorganized the SageMC Settings menu to group the various options logically together, so now you might be able to find a specific setting you are looking for Many thanks to Mike for doing the hard work and providing the layout to me



Integration of SageMC enhancements

Twieder provided great features in his Enhancement plugin, and I included some of them in this new version

• scrollbars for tables / lists
• setting to hide list numbers
• highlight current recording, specify color / alpha
• setting for opacity of OSD background
• folder icon for grouped recordings

Other enhancements:

• support for option "channel change on timeout" and "custom max channel"
• picture library now displays correct picture counts
• display channel logos in left side of guide
• added configuration for number of list rows in 'By Song' view
• added list view for albums (set column number to 1)
• added setting to enable/disable display of single video files in folders
• added setting to use full folder.jpg cover for folders in Video Library
• allow both title and keyword criteria for favorites, can be edited in favorite settings
• added feature to add title/keyword favorite from IMDB search
• made 'Series Info' button accessible from Program Info menu
• channel up/down jumps +/- 10 channels in MiniGuide
• channel entry in MiniGuide now operates MiniGuide instead of switching channel
• allow rewind from Stop dialog
• added option for reverse order in EPG
• added option to specify text for 'More'

Bugfixes

• fixed airing time setting for favorites
• fixed cut-off of original airing date
• fixed search dialog

Installation (as usual):

- shut down the UI
- unzip *all* files in the download file
- restart the UI
- load the new STV


The dev package (includes only new STV, JARs, and Default theme) and the full installation package are available for download here:

SageMC 6.3.4 update
SageMC 6.3.4 full install

Note: the JAR files included in this version will only work with Java 1.6. If you are still using 1.4, you can try the following: remove the JAR files sagemc.jar, mailcheck.jar, and df_sageutils.jar from the JARs directory and replace them with the files found in SageMC-JARs-java14.zip. I haven't tested this yet with 1.4, so if you run into problems then let me know (or upgrade to Java 1.6 which I would strongly recommend anyway).



Here are a few pictures which show some of the new features:



















Special thanks to Mike, Scott, Morgan, Bob, Todd, and others for their suggestions and testing.


Enjoy,

Dirk

[kricker]

Holy mackerel! I'm glad I checked my email before I went to bed! Guess I'll be up for a bit playing now. All the changes sound stellar! Thanks Dirk, and all those that have assisted him in this new version.

[kricker]

Okay, first observations: I see no difference in the 'my videos' display option 'show folder for single video' enabled or disabled. This is when using the file system and folder view. It seems to work when using groups or genres views (neither of which I use).

When in 'my videos' sage comes to a crawl and eventually stops responding. I need to kill it from the task manager. I do not see this behavior when using the default stv.

Pressing the 'play' command on a movie in the 'my videos' screen does not play the movies as it does with a recording in the 'my tv' section. I have to 'select' the movie then choose play from the menu on the next screen.

For reference; my movies are all stored in E:\Movies. Each within their own folder with multiple .jpegs of poster art.

[mickp]

Woot.

Thanks for all of the effort Dirk and team. This is a superb release. Well done.

The only issue that I've noticed so far is that if that if I enable mce style menus the menu bar appears on top of the menu text. This is easily worked around though I do prefer to use the mce style on my main pvr (see attached image).

Time for me to go play with the email options...

Thanks again.

Mick.

[kricker]

Originally Posted by mickp

Woot.

Thanks for all of the effort Dirk and team. This is a superb release. Well done.

The only issue that I've noticed so far is that if that if I enable mce style menus the menu bar appears on top of the menu text. This is easily worked around though I do prefer to use the mce style on my main pvr (see attached image).

Time for me to go play with the email options...

Thanks again.

Mick.

I have also just noticed this as well, and the mce style menu does not carry over to any sub menus.

Also it appears that the program info screen now always has 8 buttons, but still suffers form the 7 button limit so the last button is cut in half.

BTW...I know I'm posting issues, but let me be clear. This is a really really nice build

[kricker]

I might have discovered what is causing the slowdown in the 'my videos' screen. For some reason all my videos are constantly being put into the queue. And in group view my covers are appearing then disappering when the selection is moved over them. SageTV's memory usage spikes around 250 megs and its vm also spikes a bit higher around 250 megs, then Sage just quits responding.

Any way to change the hover icon for the weather bar? I know I had a mod that lat me do it with the last version, I thought it might have gotten incorporated into this build.

[Conejo]

Just loaded SageMC 6.3.4. in SageTV Client

Bugcheck: If you hit REFRESH in the @email menu (with no email configured) it sends SageTV into an infinite loop and locks. I had to use End Process to quite the app.

-rich

[infocus13]

Hey Dirk, thanks for the new release - I'm loving it.

I've got one question though.

All the icons in this version of SMC are tiny on my 1080i screen (1920x1080 res). All the recording, conflict, first run icons, etc. Is there anyway to make them bigger? I can hardly make them out!

Thanks!

[clmolnar]

I've had several issues getting the Liquid Theme to work with the new version of SageTV.

First off was the background. Liquid Theme comes with a .png background, and SageMC is looking for a .jpg. Opened the file in paint, and saved it as a .jpg, now it works.

None of the liquid menu headings are working. I'm not sure what the problem is here yet. These are the Television_logo, Settings_logo, etc graphics. I do not see these in the Default theme folder. It looks like the default theme just uses enlarged fonts.

All of the selection bars have "pinched" ends except on the main menu.

Another issue is that I can't seem to find the option to change the background color of the options menu. Blue does not work so well with my theme setup.

Carl

[infocus13]

Originally Posted by clmolnar

I've had several issues getting the Liquid Theme to work with the new version of SageTV.

First off was the background. Liquid Theme comes with a .png background, and SageMC is looking for a .jpg. Opened the file in paint, and saved it as a .jpg, now it works.

None of the liquid menu headings are working. I'm not sure what the problem is here yet. These are the Television_logo, Settings_logo, etc graphics. I do not see these in the Default theme folder. It looks like the default theme just uses enlarged fonts.

All of the selection bars have "pinched" ends except on the main menu.

Another issue is that I can't seem to find the option to change the background color of the options menu. Blue does not work so well with my theme setup.

Carl

flachbar clearly said in his post that all / most of existing imports & themes will not work with the new version of SMC due to massive changes to the theme engine, etc.

[gplasky]

In both of your downloads you have the "Themes" directory in the SageMC directory. This didn't work for me. I had to copy the themes contained within that folder to where the default "Themes" directory is. That path is C:\Program Files\SageTV\SageTV\STVs\SageTV3\Themes. From your zip yours is in the C:\Program Files\SageTV\SageTV\STVs\SageTV3\SageMCE\Themes directory. FYI. (Unless I'm understanding this wrong.)


Gerry

[dflachbart]

Hi Karl,

Originally Posted by kricker

Okay, first observations: I see no difference in the 'my videos' display option 'show folder for single video' enabled or disabled. This is when using the file system and folder view. It seems to work when using groups or genres views (neither of which I use).

Hmm, works fine for me... What do you mean with "it seems to work in genre or group view" ? This setting makes only sense in the file system view, since videos are displayed independent of their folder structure in the other two views anyways...

Pressing the 'play' command on a movie in the 'my videos' screen does not play the movies as it does with a recording in the 'my tv' section. I have to 'select' the movie then choose play from the menu on the next screen.

I'll check this out

Originally Posted by kricker

I have also just noticed this as well, and the mce style menu does not carry over to any sub menus.

This too...

Also it appears that the program info screen now always has 8 buttons, but still suffers form the 7 button limit so the last button is cut in half.

Darn I thought I figured out that there will be at most 7 buttons even with the "Series Info", but guess I was wrong... I will revert this change

Originally Posted by kricker

I might have discovered what is causing the slowdown in the 'my videos' screen. For some reason all my videos are constantly being put into the queue. And in group view my covers are appearing then disappering when the selection is moved over them. SageTV's memory usage spikes around 250 megs and its vm also spikes a bit higher around 250 megs, then Sage just quits responding.

Now this is weird... Can you enable debug logging ?

Any way to change the hover icon for the weather bar? I know I had a mod that lat me do it with the last version, I thought it might have gotten incorporated into this build.

Change "hover_my weather.png" in the 'MenuIcons' directory of the theme


Dirk

[Alfiegerner]

Thanks for this release - lots of good stuff in here.

Is there a way I can remove the scroll bars? I'm guessing there is a setting somewhere for them but I can't seem to find it.